Trip to Pennsylvania

We had planned to leave Sunday, Dec 26 after church and start our drive towards Lancaster, PA to gather with Jason's family. However, with the snow we got on Christmas Day headed north, we thought it might be good to delay our departure a day. That decision was also heavily influenced by all 3 of our children exhibiting signs of potential illness. So we were at the pediatrician's office Monday morning and found out all 3 had ear infections. After getting 5 prescriptions filled, we hit the road. We spent the night in Roanoke, VA at a hotel that had an indoor pool (that's becoming our habit). We took advantage of that amenity in the morning and then got back in the car to finish our drive. We arrived in Lancaster just in time for dinner.

It was great to see everyone when we arrived. And grandma enjoyed seeing her granddaughters.Uncle Jay enjoyed the opportunity to play with little girls again (he has two daughters of his own that are too grown up for this type of horsing around - Emma was sitting in his lap and he'd rock backwards).
We arrived after dark on Tuesday, so we weren't real sure what the snow status was. However Wednesday morning we noticed the hill behind the house was perfect for sledding and had just enough snow on the lower part to have some fun. Uncle Jay had brought sleds with him (Thank you! Thank you!). Oddly enough we almost literally had to drag Emma & Heidi out to go play in the snow. They did not want to go. (They obviously need some training in the fact that they are southern girls and that snow is a treat and it is fun and they WILL enjoy playing with it when they get the opportunity!) :-) Once they were out there, they did enjoy it. Heidi had fun trying to make snowballs.
Then it was time to go sledding! Emma headed down solo.
Heidi and Jason sledding together.Here are a couple videos of the activity:




During our time in Pennsylvania, we really enjoyed the opportunity to visit with everyone - Heidi really enjoyed her time with Aunt Laura!
And it was a treat to get to visit with Grandmom and Grandad!
We had Christmas again with Jason's family.
On Friday, we went to a train museum. Heidi really liked the model trains, but was a little timid of the full-size trains. I think she thought they were going to start up, drive off and honk their horn. Emma loved climbing up on all the platforms and looking inside every car she could.Heidi did help Jason drive the simulator (however, again, she thought they were going to start moving - and she wouldn't push the button that honked the horn).Heidi received a train engineer doll from Grandma for Christmas. She insisted on bringing it in with her.After we had looked at all the full-size trains, we found the room with all the toy and model trains that we could play with. This Lego set was the first when you walked in the door. I think we spent a solid 30 minutes just here.There were also larger model trains for big kids to play with!
And finally at the back of the room was a GeoTrax layout with lots of trains and airplanes. Emma had fun with the remote control airplanes.
We spent New Year's Eve back at the house watching the ball drop on the TV and eating ice cream. :-) Then Saturday it was time to pack up and get on the road to head home. We spent the night in Statesville, NC (at another hotel with an indoor pool) and then finished the drive on Sunday.
The girls all traveled so well. I am very thankful for portable DVD players. However this trip did start something new. We have two players that we have historically linked to each other such that they show the same movie. However there was great disagreement at one point on the way home, so we put headphones with the backseat player and she got to watch what she wanted. Rachel is stuck watching whatever is on the front seat DVD player. Who knows what will happen when she's old enough to verbally disagree with the movie choice. Probably another player and headphones all around! :-)